A BUOYANT property market could be making a comeback as Cardiff’s house prices have risen at their fastest rate in more than three years, new figures suggest.

Property asking prices in the city reached £197,819 on average in May thanks to the greatest monthly rise since February 2008, the data shows.

The figure represents a 1.5% increase over April’s asking prices, and also a 1.5% rise compared to prices in May last year.

The £2,983 increase is also the largest rise since house prices jumped 3.5% in February 2008.

The figures come from the latest house price and affordability index of more than 400,000 properties at the property website FindaProperty.com

Cardiff’s property prices significantly out-performed Wales as a whole last month, with May’s average Welsh asking prices increasing by just 0.1% on April.

The average asking price in Wales has increased by 0.7% from £171,772 in May 2010 to a current average of £173,009.

Prices across the UK rose 0.4% to an average of £221,237. Properties with five or more bedrooms outperformed all other property types, increasing by 1.4% to an average of £554,764.

Property experts are divided about whether these latest results give an accurate view of the housing market.

Cardiff-based estate agent Thomas George said that while the market showed signs of stabilising in Cardiff, properties are selling well below their asking prices.

“Everyone who is making an offer is coming in at 5% to 10% below the asking prices,” he said.

“The figures we are producing now are no better than they were 12 months ago. The market out there isn’t moving because first- time buyers are being frozen out of the market. If they are frozen out then second and third-time buyers can’t move up either.”

Samantha Baden, an analyst at FindaProperty.com, was more positive about current house prices.

She said: “House prices in Cardiff are bouncing back after suffering a hit during the downturn. These signs of recovery have been helped along by a strengthening economy in the Welsh capital where unemployment is below the Welsh average. Asking price increases are reinforcing what we’re hearing from Cardiff estate agents, who say the city’s property market is undergoing a mild spring comeback.”